Keeping up the legacy of naming an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) by its city and not by its state, IIM Himachal is proposed to be known as IIM Sirmaur with the finalization of site for its permanent campus at Dhaula Kuan in Sirmaur District of Himachal Pradesh. IIM Lucknow has been assigned the responsibility to mentor IIM Sirmaur till it becomes fully functional in its permanent campus.
The good news is that the students opting to study at IIM Sirmaur in Himachal pradesh for first few years will have the learning experience from the highly ranked IIM Lucknow faculty. Academic session for the first PGP batch 2015-17 at IIM Sirmaur is proposed to begin at its temporary campus in the month of August 2015.
Site selection team finalizes campus
The site selection team comprising 3 Central Committee members headed by Mr Shashi Prakash Goyal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD); and members Prof Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM-Ahmedabad and Professor Bharat Bhaskar, Task Force head from IIM-Lucknow has finally selected a site measuring appx 10000 sq. yards at Daula Kuan in Paonta Sahib Sub Division of Sirmaur District for the permanent campus.
Other officials from Himachal Pradesh who accompanied the Central Team comprised Mr Ritesh Chauhan, DC Sirmaur; Mr Sanjay Gupta, Principal Secretary, Technical Education; Mr Rajeshwar Goyal, Director, Technical Education; Mr Shravan Manta SDM; Mr Praveen Aggarwal Superintending Engineer, CPWD; Mr Y P Gupta, Conservator Forests. Since the site lies on the national highway, it has been considered more suitable to house the premier B school in the state.
According to Mr Sanjay Gupta the site at Dhaula Kuan has been finally selected to accommodate the permanent campus of Indian Institute of Management in Himachal Pradesh.
The temporary campus to begin the first PGP batch 2015-17 would be a rented one, also situated in Paonta Sahib. Out of the 3 sites selected for the temporary campus, it is proposed that the maiden academic session would begin at the dental college at Rampurghat as the building has sufficient required space and is equipped with classrooms, auditorium and other facilities. The first session of IIM Sirmaur may begin in the July end or in the beginning of August this year.
First batch with 60 students
IIM Sirmaur is supposed to kick start the academic session for flagship PGP batch 2015-17 in the month of July/August 2015 with an intake of 60 students. In the forthcoming years the intake may increase gradually.
The number of seats for General candidates may be between 27-30 and the rest reserved for different categories out of 60 seats.
Candidates who appeared in CAT 2014 and had opted to be considered for admission in proposed new IIMs were shortlisted for Personal Interview round. Those who have appeared in Common Admission Process (CAP) 2015 and have been selected for admission or even waitlisted could be considered for admission for PGDM batch 2015-17 at IIM Sirmaur.
Shortlisting Criteria for final admission round
It is expected that on the lines of IIM Nagpur, the upcoming IIM Sirmaur would shortlist the candidates based on their high CAT 2014 scores. The expected CAT 2014 overall percentile cut off for shortlisting for flagship PGP 2015-17 batch at IIM Sirmaur could be 95+ with sectional percentile of 80 in each of the 2 sections.
IIML faculty to teach at IIM Sirmaur
Despite all the distance from Lucknow to Sirmaur, the mentoring IIM Lucknow faculty has geared up to impart teaching at IIM Sirmaur. This will enable the students at IIM Sirmaur to have the great experience of pedagogy and all the best teaching practices of IIM Lucknow which is one of top rated B schools in the country.
With IIM Lucknow at the helm of affairs students seeking admission opportunity in IIM Sirmaur can be assured of a very good learning experience. At present IIM Lucknow has 79 full time faculty members. The teacher student ratio at IIM Lucknow could be considered as one of the best.
As a mentor institute, the faculty members from IIM Lucknow are supposed to travel to IIM Sirmaur to conduct classes.
IIM Lucknow to bear expenses
IIM Lucknow, the mentor IIM for IIM Sirmaur will bear expenses on establishing and beginning the academic session of IIM Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh. In fact the proposed cost of operation to be incurred by IIM Lucknow on IIM Sirmaur for about 3 years is to be forwarded to MHRD. The amount will be reimbursed to IIM Lucknow later.
IIM Sirmaur: In search of faculty/student accommodation
The temporary campus of IIM Sirmaur will require sufficient accommodation facility for students and faculty. In case it is not available on campus, suitable arrangements have to be made off campus.
Another important aspect is that since there will be a great deal of windy road travel to IIM Sirmaur how does the mentor IIM Lucknow propose to reduce the fatigue caused to its faculty by commuting between IIML and IIM Sirmaur is to be seen.
The flight and road distance time to commute between both the IIMs might cause fatigue to the faculty and might reflect on their teaching. One of the solutions to the problem could be preparing, designing and shaping the curriculum for IIM Sirmaur in the way so that the IIM Lucknow faculty could stay a bit longer at IIM Sirmaur instead of travelling back to home institute very frequently.
How to reach IIM Sirmaur
If you get nausea while travelling on hilly roads, please take care as it will be around 3-4 hours windy road journey to reach IIM Sirmaur from the nearest Railway station. In fact Dhaula Kuan is a Village in Paonta Sahib Tehsil in Sirmaur District of Himachal Pradesh State, India. It is located 39 Kms towards East from District head quarters Nahan and 98 Kms from State capital Shimla. Dhaula Kuan Pin code is 173001 and postal head office is Nahan.
Nearby cities to Dhaula Kuan are Nahan , Jagadhri, Mussoorie and Yamunanagar. It is near to the Uttarakhand State Border and lies in the border of the Sirmaur District and Dehradun District of Uttarakhand. Hindi is the local language of the area.
Dehradun Railway Station is the nearest major railway station which is about 60 Kms away from the upcoming IIM Sirmaur. The nearest Airport is also Jolly Grant Airport Dehradun although Shimla Airport is also about 100 Kms away.
With IIM Nagpur having already announced its admission process and IIM Visakhapatnam close on heels, IIM Sirmaur could become the 3rd IIM out of the 6 proposed new IIMs to timely commence operation in 2015. The timely decision taken on IIM Sirmaur campuses would also avoid the delays in beginning of first PGP batch 2015-17.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on IIM Sirmaur
